A roof over the Mingoola Rural Fire Service (RFS) tanker is finally on the radar as the acquisition of a block of land to house a new shed finally nears completion.
There has been a degree of toing-and-froing after the TSR (Travelling Stock Route) land originally earmarked for the RFS shed was advised by Crown Lands to be subject to a native title claim. Extinguishing said claim could be a lengthy and expensive process.
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Negotiations got underway with the Department of Education to carve off a corner of the area surrounding Mingoola Public School with the hope that the department would just hand over the parcel of land, considering it’s for emergency services use. That hope proved futile, with council expected to pay market value for the block and meet all associated costs.
It was then back to the drawing board, with Crown Lands now advising there are no native title issues with the original block (measuring 25 square metres ) on the corner of Bruxner Highway and Mingoola School Road. Council can now apply to that body to be appointed the manager of the site with no acquisition costs.
RFS volunteer Andrew Hynes had raised the matter at the August council meeting held in Mingoola Hall, seeking an update on the process which has been ongoing since 2015.
Mr Hynes said currently the fire truck is parked under a tree on the Mountain Creek Road property of the fire captain, and has been since the brigade received the truck three years ago. There are 12-15 volunteers in the Mingoola RFS.
